• HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

Compensation & Benefits

Adding perks? Watch tax implications

08/31/2026
By Alice Gilman Maybe this is the year you can’t add much in the way of raises given the double-digit increases coming in 2027 for health coverage. But you still want to reward your hardworking staff and show them appreciation. Before you roll out shiny new perks, make sure you check the tax consequences. Many… View Article

Vote early, not often

08/24/2026
By Alice Gilman: Chicago is famous for deep-dish pizza, Wrigley Field and Al Capone, who really did say vote early, vote often. Election day is coming up and everyone should exercise their franchise. If you’re not located in a state with early voting, you can let employees take time off from work to vote. Flip… View Article

New rules coming for Trump Accounts

08/17/2026
The Treasury Department is proposing new rules for Trump Accounts, the child investment vehicles recently available to parents. The accounts can be opened by a parent for children under age 18. For those children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028, Treasury will provide $1,000 seed money. The annual contribution limit from all… View Article

Health insurance cost set to spike for small employers

08/17/2026
When it comes to offering employees health insurance benefits, small companies with 25 or fewer workers are already far behind larger companies with 200 or more workers. Only 51% of smaller companies offer insurance while over 97% of bigger companies do. If a recent report from KFF, the health policy research, polling and news organization,… View Article

Jobs and workforce participation rate fall

08/09/2026
In a bit of bad news, the latest figures from the Department of Labor (DOL) show that the number of new jobs created and the workforce participation rate both fell in July. While analysts expected a job gain of about 80,000 positions, the DOL reported that jobs fell by about 23,000 positions. The unemployment rate… View Article

HR professionals: Check your privilege?

08/09/2026
A recent study sheds light on why some applicants or employees do better than others when negotiating a starting salary or pay increase. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management conducted a research study that included 1,100 human resource professionals confronted with applicants who were told they could negotiate their compensation. The study,… View Article

Creative benefits that don’t break the bank

08/09/2026
According to the Census Bureau, by 2030, all baby boomers will be older than 65. Impact: 20% of employees will be at their retirement age and may be thinking seriously about their future in the next few years. Their upcoming decisions like when to sign up for Medicare when they still have company-sponsored health insurance and whether… View Article

Surveys suggest hybrid model best suits employers, workers

08/09/2026
Every year, the law firm Littler conducts an extensive employer survey designed to identify what worries employers most. This year, the Littler Annual Employer Survey Report revealed widespread worries about flexible work arrangements like telework, hybrid work and return-to-office policies. The main finding was that efforts to bring employees fully onsite have flattened and the… View Article

DOL opinion letter addresses telework and hybrid schedules

08/03/2026
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers don’t usually have to pay hourly workers for the time they spend commuting from home to the workplace and back home again at the end of their shift. But there are exceptions. One of those exceptions involves a split workday in which a worker travels from one… View Article

Survey flashes employee retention warning

07/27/2026
According to a new survey from Eagle Hill Consulting, a management consulting firm, employers may soon find that workers who have so far stayed put will leave for better opportunities. The survey highlighted a shift from staying even when pay was stagnant to one in which employees are actively considering new opportunities. Melissa Jezior, president… View Article